An organization led by North America's top environmental officials has issued a new report calling for greater international collaboration to build green.

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation
(CEC), formed to address environmental concerns within North America's
free-trading nations, stated the need for "a lasting and achievable
vision" of green buildings. The vision for Canada, the United States,
and Mexico includes the creation of stakeholder task forces in each
country, targets to build net zero-energy buildings, and the promotion
of private sector financing.

"This effort can help strengthen the economies of North America by
spurring new markets and business opportunities for manufacturers,
utilities, and other companies," said the report, which the
Montreal-based commission released on March 13.

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The targets recommended by the commission follow the framework of U.S. architect-turned-activist Ed Mazria's "2030 Challenge,"
which calls for new buildings to be designed to emit half or less of
the greenhouse gases of the regional average for their type. The
challenge also outlines a target for "carbon-neutral" buildings by
2030, meaning the structures would require no fossil fuel-emitting
energy to operate.

Commercial and residential buildings currently consume a large share of
total energy needs across North America: 20 percent in Canada, 30
percent in Mexico, and 40 percent in the United States, the report
said. Spending more money upfront for efficient design is one of the
simplest solutions for reducing energy use, say green building experts.
Yet despite the potential gains, green building is being used in only
about 2 percent of non-residential and 0.3 percent of residential
structures in the United States and Canada. No reliable data is
available for green building in Mexico, the report says.

The U.S. Green Building Council,
the authority that grants green design certification, says
environmentally friendly construction, on average, reduces energy use
30 percent, carbon emissions 35 percent, water use 30 to 50 percent,
and generated waste 50 to 90 percent. The commission's report also
highlights the health benefits associated with green buildings, such as
the effect of improved ventilation on indoor air quality, estimated at
$58 billion a year.

In December, international consulting firm McKinsey & Company released a sweeping cost-benefit analysis of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The report
said improving energy efficiency in commercial and residential
buildings would be by far the cheapest and most effective first step.

"Most improvements use existing technology," the report said.
"Together, they could offset 70 percent of incremental
power...forestalling the need to build many of the new power plants
projected through 2030."

Improving the design of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning
systems (HVACs) may not generate enough savings to offset the cost of
improved efficiency. But all other building improvements, such as
installing efficient lighting, retrofitting enhanced insulation, and
switching to renewable energy for water heaters, would eventually save
money over time, the McKinsey report said.

The CEC's report discusses some of the major roadblocks to green
building design in North America. A shared problem is the insistence of
governments and institutions to remain fixed within operational
budgets, which do not consider the life cycle of a building's expenses.
Also, tenants who pay for improved energy efficiency do not reap the
economic benefits, an obstacle known as "the split incentive problem."
To address this, many landlords are now offering a "green lease" that rewards green building improvements.

In Mexico, the report said, a "paucity of urban planning and building
regulations" is limiting progress. But among the steps forward, a
Mexican housing fund last year formed a "green mortgage" program that offers more affordable mortgages to homeowners who purchase green buildings.

The CEC, formed in coordination with the North American Free Trade
Agreement in 1993, is led by top environmental officials in Canada,
Mexico, and the United States. However, the commission says the report
does not reflect the views of its member nations, but rather of the
CEC's professional staff.